HTC Vive interview: The new flagship VR headset makes its debut - Android Authority

Kris Carlon / Android Authority

We precocious had the accidental to speech with Shen Ye from HTC Vive astatine CES 2023 astir the company’s astir caller improvement successful VR (virtual reality). We chiefly talked astir HTC’s latest Vive XR Elite headset, which is simply a premium merchandise chiefly aimed astatine consumers.

A: The Vive XR Elite is an amalgamation of everything we’ve done successful VR truthful far. It’s a premium flagship user headset.

Last year, we had 2 mobile headsets. One was the Vive Focus 3, which was designed for endeavor and had the champion exertion we developed successful presumption of hardware, software, and tracking. And past we besides had Vive Flow, our immersive glasses with an ultra-portable design. This year, we took the champion of some worlds and introduced the Vive XR Elite, which we deliberation is the cleanable signifier origin for consumers.

The HTC Vive XR Elite is lighter than the latest procreation of the iPad Pro.

It lone weighs 625 grams, making it lighter than the latest procreation of the iPad Pro. It’s besides precise powerful, arsenic we were capable to compression a batch into this compact frame. It has a 4K show moving astatine 90Hz and 4 tracking cameras that powerfulness our in-house inside-out tracking. There’s a extent sensor astatine the front, arsenic good arsenic a 16MP RGB camera.

The artillery lasts for 2 hours, and the speakers that are connected the sides are truthful good hidden you won’t adjacent spot them. However, they inactive person bully volume, bass, and clarity.

Q: A batch of your competitors are either targeting consumers oregon enterprises. You mentioned that your merchandise combines the champion of some world, truthful does that means you’re targeting some markets?

Kris Carlon / Android Authority

A: Our absorption is to instrumentality each the tech we person to marque a truly bully user headset. We’re trying to present a premium experience, and we deliberation that this merchandise has the cleanable equilibrium of exertion and plan for consumers.

However, we volition alteration the merchandise for endeavor usage arsenic well, and we’ll denote each the details astatine Mobile World Congress.

Q: Can I hook up the HTC Vive XR Elite to my PC?

A: Yes, you tin hook it up to a PC. We volition alteration a virtual table acquisition arsenic good soon, which volition springiness you 3 virtual screens. You tin besides watercourse PCVR contented if you’re a instrumentality oregon watercourse from an Android instrumentality via Miracast.

For example, you could beryllium connected a level and person a Disney Plus oregon a Netflix amusement downloaded connected your telephone and past you tin ticker it with Vive XR Elite and consciousness similar you’re looking astatine a 300-inch backstage cinema screen. If you combined each the screens disposable successful archetypal class, they wouldn’t adjacent travel close.

Q: A batch of companies deliberation that the endeavor assemblage is the 1 that volition follow VR exertion much truthful than the user sector. What’s HTC’s stance connected that? Looking astatine your broader portfolio, would you accidental you’re much focused connected enterprises, consumers, oregon both?

A: We’re focused connected both. We’re targeting a precise antithetic user radical than the 1 targeted by companies making the cheapest headsets. Those are mostly impulse purchases, portion our merchandise is for radical who privation to bash the probe and request a truly bully headset. They privation the champion of the best.

But we besides person a bully absorption connected enterprise. The Vive Focus 3 is the de-facto headset. If you inquire anyone who runs VR training, they’ll archer you that the Vive Focus 3 is the headset to get.

So we bash person a absorption connected some the user and endeavor markets. Our archetypal headset was the HTC Vive, which had a large user audience, but it enabled the maturation for VR for enterprises arsenic well.

Q: What are the controllers for the HTC Vice XR Elite like?

A: The controllers are the aforesaid ones we usage for the Vive Focus 3. The crushed for that is due to the fact that they are intuitive, comfortable, and versatile. They’ve besides been tested by enterprises arsenic well. And astir importantly, they person fantabulous tracking capabilities and past astir 16 hours.

Another payment of utilizing the aforesaid controllers is that it allows america to minimize our biology interaction since we usage the aforesaid manufacturing process for both.

Q: Let’s speech astir price. How overmuch does the HTC Vive XR Elite outgo and erstwhile volition it beryllium available?

A: It comes successful astatine $1,099 and includes 2 controllers and the artillery cradle. It’s already up for pre-order, with shipping starting successful February.